Guest
Post for Mommy Bloggers
(for
their use as per Momumental
marketing plan)
Jennifer
Grant
March
26, 2012
The
Funny, Broken, Love of Parenting
I
click open a Facebook message. A friend has sent me a word search and
tells me to let my eyes fall onto the image and take note of the
first three words that I see. These are the words that best describe
me, she promises.
I
shrug, take a sip of coffee, and glance at it. “Funny,” “broken,”
and “love” are my words.
When
I close the message, I’m tempted for a moment to try again. What
other words are hidden in that tangle of letters? Maybe on my second
try, my eyes will land on a combination such as “smart,”
“attractive,” and “successful.” (That would be nice.)
I
don’t give it another try, though. The words I read the first time
are just right considering how I’ve been spending my days for the
past several months, thinking and writing about the family in which I
am the wife and the mother and about my family of origin, where my
story began.
Funny,
broken, love -
sounds
like family.
MOMumental:
Adventures in the Messy Art of Raising a Family
is about my own missteps and small victories as a mother. Over the
years, after beginning my parenting journey – as so many of us do –
staggering under the weight of the expectations I had for myself,
I’ve loosened up. I’ve come to learn that none of us is perfect.
We all fail, misunderstand our kids sometimes, and mess up in
countless ways. In MOMumental,
I share stories of some of my “epic fails” as a mom.
The
dire messages that flash on the computer or television screen that
warn what a mother absolutely must
or must
not
do no longer hold me tightly in their grasp. I now look at myself –
and at other mothers – with less judgment, knowing that we all work
it out, there is no manual for motherhood, and that the most
important thing in raising kids is to be authentically connected with
them.
(And
a person can do that whether she serves microwaved macaroni and
cheese to her kids for lunch every day or gives them homemade bread
and a sampling of organic greens from her vegetable garden. Whether
or not she homeschools them, uses “the family bed,” or exposes
them to Mozart by the time they are six days old.)
I
hope in sharing my own personal – and often quite cringe-worthy –
story in MOMumental,
other parents will show themselves, and other parents, more grace as
we raise our children.
To
me, those three words – funny, broken, and love – are great ones
to reflect on when I think about the gift of family. To be able to
enjoy our kids, repair our relationships with them when needed, and
most of to love our children like crazy covers a multitude of
parental crimes and misdemeanors.
Wishing
you all the best in your own messy family-making adventures!
MOMumental is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and wherever books are
sold.
To check out on Amazon : MOMumental
and
Amazon Kindle: Amazon Kindle- MOMumental
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